J Integr Plant Biol

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  • 收稿日期:2025-02-20 接受日期:2025-04-09

Harnessing Green Revolution genes to optimize tomato production efficiency for vertical farming

Xuchen Yu1,2,3†, Zuoyao Li4†, Yongfang Yang1,2†, Shujia Li1,2, Yezi Lu1,2,3, Yang Li5, Xinyu Zhang1,2,3, Fan Chen1,6* and Cao Xu1,2,3*   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Seed Innovation, National Center for Plant Gene Research (Beijing), Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    2. CAS–JIC Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Science, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    3. College of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    4. College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
    5. Plant Factory R&D Center, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
    6. Yazhouwan National Laboratory, Sanya 572024, China

    †These authors contributed equally to this article.
    *Correspondences: Fan Chen (fchen@genetics.ac.cn); Cao Xu (caoxu@genetics.ac.cn; Dr. Xu is fully responsible for the distribution of all materials associated with this article)
  • Received:2025-02-20 Accepted:2025-04-09
  • Supported by:
    This research was supported by the Cooperation Project of China, the Netherlands (CAS‐NWO) (151111KYSB20210001), the CAS Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (YSBR‐078), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32225045) to C.X.

Abstract: Vertical farming offers significant potential to tackle global challenges like urbanization, food security, and climate change. However, its widespread adoption is hindered by high costs, substantial energy demands, and thus low production efficiency. The limited range of economically viable crops further compounds these challenges. Beyond advancing infrastructure, rapidly developing crop cultivars tailored for vertical farming (VF) are essential to enhancing production efficiency. The gibberellin biosynthesis genes GA20-oxidase fueled the Green Revolution in cereals, while the anti-florigen genes SELF-PRUNING (SP) and SELF-PRUNING 5G (SP5G) revolutionized tomato production. Here, we engineer tomato germplasm optimized for VF by leveraging genome editing to integrate Green Revolution gene homologs and anti-florigen genes. Knocking out the tomato SlGA20ox1 gene, but not SlGA20ox2, results in a promising VF-suitable plant architecture featuring short stems and a compact canopy. When cultivated in a commercial vertical farm with multi-layered, LED-equipped automated hydroponic growth systems, slga20ox1 mutants saved space occupation by 75%, achieving a 38%–69% fruit yield increase with higher planting density, less space occupation, and lower lighting power consumption. Stacking SlGA20ox1 with SP and SP5G genes created a more compact plant architecture with accelerated flowering and synchronized fruit ripening. In commercial vertical farms, the sp sp5g slga20ox1 triple mutant reduced space occupation by 85%, shortened the harvest cycle by 16% and increased effective yield by 180%, significantly enhancing production efficiency. Our study demonstrates the potential of integrating agriculture practice-validated genes to rapidly develop tomato cultivars tailored for VF, providing a proof-of-concept for leveraging genome editing to boost production efficiency in VF.

Key words: CRISPR/Cas9, GA20ox, Green Revolution, plant architecture, tomato, vertical farming

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